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Speaker: Rev. Dr. Kit Schooley

What if everything you thought you knew about how the Bible came together was incomplete? The messy, human story behind Christianity's sacred text reveals a journey far more fascinating than most Sunday School lessons suggest.

The Bible didn't arrive as a pre-packaged collection of divine writings. Its formation followed no clear pattern, evolving through what one Methodist preacher called a "wild and woolly" process that "no one except maybe God could fully understand." This revelation forms the foundation of "Getting to 66," an exploration of how the 66 books that constitute our modern Bible came to be recognized as sacred scripture.

Perhaps most surprising is the timeline: Jesus died around 30 CE, but the first gospel wasn't written until 40 years later. None of the New Testament authors wrote with any expectation their works would become "scripture." The familiar gospels emerged gradually - Mark (70 CE), Matthew (90 CE), Luke (shortly after), and John (95-100 CE) - each reflecting different theological emphases and community needs. Meanwhile, approximately 50 other gospels circulated among early Christian communities, many now lost to history.

As Christianity spread beyond Jerusalem into the Greek-speaking world, particularly after Rome's destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the faith faced existential questions: How could diverse congregations scattered across the Mediterranean maintain unity without centralized leadership? What defined authentic Christian teaching? Was Jesus human, divine, or both? These questions sparked theological battles that would rage for centuries, particularly against movements like Gnosticism with its emphasis on secret knowledge and spiritual hierarchies.

The formation of the Bible wasn't merely a theological exercise but a deeply political 200-year process shaped by personalities, power struggles, and practical concerns. Understanding this human dimension doesn't diminish scripture's significance but invites us to approach it with greater humility and awareness of the complex journey that brought these ancient texts together.

What questions does this origin story raise about your own understanding of scripture? Join us next week as we continue exploring how these diverse texts were eventually wrangled into the canonical collection we know today.

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